Oracle Blog

(Masood Mortazavi)

Marketing is a Subtle and Essential Art

Most engineers tend to denigrate marketing as something that is not only unnecessary but also a nuisance.

I always find that attitude incomprehensible and cannot relate to it at all. In full contrast, I believe marketing to lie at the very core of business work. It is an extremely subtle art, not to be taken lightly at all.

After all, my father was a founder of an advertising company, where he also sat on the board and led the design department for 15 years. It was not easy. I remember watching them hunch over a logo or a phrase for a full week, and this was one of the easiest and most rewarding parts in the marketing value chain.

While the motto that it is all about perception has a lot to say, it doesn't capture the full picture at all. The motto that calls for always striving to be number 1 or number 2 has the same resonance but can totally miss where the innovations come from: dedicated individuals with an uncanny sense of the market.

Marketing is a subtle art where business concerns, technique, perception, strategy, partnerships, real living and dealing all come together to determine the right course of action.

Without marketing, which at its very foundation is the art of (external and internal) sensing and persuasion, a going commercial concern is not only lost in its everyday grind but will also lose sight of purposeful action into the future.

"Marketing is a subtle art where business concerns, technique, perception, strategy, partnerships, real living and dealing all come together to determine the right course of action."

The only thing I'd add is the rise of communities and how marketing can leverage a larger, more genuine conversation with the market by simply joining any number of communities. Right now, too much of the marketing profession is defensive and takes place in a bubble.